Category Archives: Announcements

The American Association of Community Theatre (AACT) holds a national competitive festival every two years. The 2021 festival is going on right now, June 14-20, 2021. Virtually, so you can attend without traveling.

There are 12 shows being presented, by community theatres selected as the best from all over the country. There will also be many useful workshops and presentations.

A local neighboring group, The Lexington Players, is one of the competitors. They are presenting The Mountaintop, by Katori Hall, a fictional depiction of events the night before the assassination of the civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The players are Dominic Carter and Jess Washington, and the director is Sal Jones. The show is streaming on Saturday 19 June 2021 at 9:30 PM, with the adjudication streaming the following morning.

You can purchase tickets for individual performances, or for the entire festival. For complete information, see aact.org/aactfest-2021.

Theatre Company of Saugus went to the AACT Fest 2002, as the representative of the New England Region, with our production of Interview.

We are saddened to learn of the passing of Nancy Welch. She was very active in the Theater Company of Saugus from about 2009 to 2015.

She is the mother of Jessica Stockton, who has been a TCS member since 2008.

Nancy was an ensemble cast member in our productions of Guys and Dolls, Wizard of Oz, Cabaret, and Charlotte’s Web. She assisted behind the scenes for many shows, and was the producer or co-producer of Props, Macbeth, A Look at the Past–A Light to the Future, Charlotte’s Web, and The Underpants.

She was the director of the one-act comedy The Proposal, by Anton Chekhov, which we brought to the EMACT Festival in 2012.

Nancy Welch served on the TCS board of directors for several years. She was Vice President and Acting President in 2015. Her husband Chuck Welch also assisted TCS behind the scenes.

We offer our condolences to her husband and only child and other family members.

The Theatre Company of Saugus presents virtual sessions in which we read aloud new plays. All the plays have been submitted by TCS members and friends, and the authors will be listening in to hear how their work sounds.

You can participate as an actor by reading one of the roles in the plays. Or you can just listen and enjoy hearing these works for the first time. Participation is free!

See the links below for signing up to read a role, and to get into the Zoom sessions.

There will be three evening sessions in April and May 2021.

#1 Wednesday 28 April 2021 at 7:00 PM – Five Short Plays

• All’s Fair by Jackie Freyman – Travelers in Greece meet Aphrodite and Ares
• Anonymous by Jackie Freyman & Mike Sprague – A session of the Heroes Anonymous Support Group
• The Drama Behind the Drama by Ralph Tufo – Backstage at a community theater opening night
• This Getting Old is Getting Old by Ralph Tufo – An older married couple at home in Revere
• Of Muppets and Vampires by Billy Jenkins – A nerd and a former popular girl at a bus stop

#2 Thursday 13 May 2021 at 7:00 PM – A Comedy and a Monologue

• It’s All About John and Marion (a comedy) by Tasmin Jahan – An older couple deal with each other and with their neighbors and relatives
• A monologue from Roses Have Thorns by Sr. Bridget Edman, performed by Ann Marie King

#3 Tuesday 18 May 2021 at 7:00 PM – A Full Length Play

• The Men Who Would Be Mice by Matthew Garlin – The people running the Disney company

To see the roles in each play, and to sign up to read a role, visit our google doc. You can sign up for one role on each evening. Anyone of any gender or ethnicity can read any role.

Click on one of these links to join the Zoom sessions:

1. Wednesday 28 April 2021 at 7:00 PM
2. Thursday 13 May 2021 at 7:00 PM
3. Tuesday 18 May 2021 at 7:00 PM

We are now planning productions for our next season in 2021-2022. Our first show, in October 2021, will be Halloween themed, as we have been doing for the past several years. This year, however, we want to do a play rather than a musical. (Because singing in front of an audience might still be restricted.)  

So we are now open to your suggestions of plays appropriate for the Halloween season. Either comedy or drama, as long as it has elements that are spooky, macabre, or mysterious!  

Please send your suggestions to our season production committee at: TCSaugus@gmail.com

The company has not been able to do its usual season of shows over the past year, so we have had very little income.  But we do have ongoing fixed expenses, and thus financial losses.  So please donate as much as you can.  With your support we can maintain ourselves, until we can resume entertaining you in person.

Your donations are deductible on your federal income tax, as we are a 501 (c) (3) charitable organization. Thank you for your support!

There are three easy ways to send us monetary donations. Via PayPal, Venmo, or by Check.

With either PayPal or Venmo you can enter a Note with the payment. The note should include this information:

Your Name / Your Email Address / Reason and Amount.  For example:

Jane Doe  /  JDoe3@abc.com  /  Donation $30

To make a donation via PayPal: Login to your PayPal account. Select the option to Send money. Enter the TCS email address as the recipient: TCSaugus@gmail.com. Add the Note.

To make a donation via Venmo: Login to your Venmo account. Send money and search under People for: @theatrecompanyof-saugus. Add the Note.

To make a donation by Check: Make your personal check payable to: Theatre Company of Saugus. Include the memo: Donation TCS 2021. Mail the check to: Theatre Company of Saugus / PO Box 1058 / Saugus, MA 01906

Greetings fellow playwrights and play readers! 

The play-reading committee of the Theater Company of Saugus would like to wish you well during these trying times and offer you a bit of escape. We had such an excellent time working on our recent virtual production of A Christmas Carol. Given the success of that project, we are currently beginning to search for plays for virtual reading sessions, or possibly a virtual springtime production. So, we need your help!

We are looking to you for new and interesting play submissions. Perhaps you are a playwright and would like to have your work read aloud by local artists. Or maybe you just love a particular play and would like the opportunity to take part in a reading or production of the piece. All people reading this are encouraged to submit plays! Whether you’re a longtime TCS member or just someone who happened to stumble upon this post. Either way, we anticipate your responses and look forward to looking through your submissions and working with each of you. 

Simply send us an email with your suggestions, questions, or comments. Use the subject line: Play Reading. Send to TCSaugus@gmail.com.

Thank you, and continue to stay healthy and safe, 

From: Matthew Garlin and Sean Perry, Co – Chair of TCS Play-Reading Committee